Russian chocolate lace recipe perfected in Danbury

DANBURY -- Mary Ann Frede will never forget the homemade chocolate lace she once bought from a local candymaker for her Made in Connecticut store.

The exquisite-tasting chocolate and caramel treat made in lattice sheets was produced by the late Steve Bray in a small home factory on South Street.

The recipe he used was created in the early 1900s by a Russian immigrant named Eugenia Tay, who started out making the specialty chocolate for family members on cold winter days.

As the story goes, in 1917 Tay emigrated to New York City, where she was able to turn her chocolate lace into a profitable business. She even invented a machine to make the lace patterns, a one-of-a-kind apparatus now owned by Hauser Chocolatier in Bethel, which bought Bray's business in 2005.

In the early 1980s, Bray bought the chocolate lace business that had previously been purchased from Tay. Word-of-mouth advertising of the confection required Bray to expand the then Danbury-based business, Bray Chocolates, Frede recalled.

Bray moved into space at the Francis J. Clarke Industrial Park in Bethel, where he operated as a family business, although he had no second generation to take it over, she said.

"He was just the nicest guy,'' Frede said about the man she purchased the candy from for the 10 years she operated her store at Main and Liberty streets before a fire destroyed it in 1995.

The Hausers, longtime fans of the chocolate lace product they first bought in a local gourmet food store, opened their own chocolate business on Greenwood Avenue in Bethel in 1985, said Lucille Hauser.

"I don't remember when we first tasted it, but it would have been a box we bought at Emily's (gourmet food store) on Greenwood Avenue,'' Hauser said. "My kids grew up with it and loved it. And we thought it would be so much fun to own that product.''

Dr. Mike's Ice Cream Shop in Bethel has long used the locally made chocolate lace in one of its featured flavors.

Over the years, the Hausers told Bray they would be interested if he ever wanted to sell his business. Besides chocolate lace, Bray also made a product called confetti crunch.

One day in 2004, Bray made the offer. Hauser's son, Rudi, who now owns the company, worked out the arrangement, and in March 2005 Hauser Chocolatier became proprietors of the product.

Today, the Hausers sell chocolate lace in several flavors, and the history of how it came to be is printed on the back of boxes that sell for $11.25 or $18.75. Smaller pouches with crumble pieces sell for $6.25.